In
Homer, the term Achaeans is one of the primary terms used to refer to the Greeks as a whole. It is used 598 times in the
Iliad, often accompanied by the epithet "long-haired". Other common names used in Homer are
Danaans (;
Danaoi; used 138 times in the
Iliad) and
Argives (; ; used 182 times in the
Iliad).
Panhellenes (
Panhellenes, "All of the Greeks") and
Hellenes (;
Hellenes) both
appear only once. All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity. In some
English translations of the Iliad, the Achaeans are simply called the
Greeks throughout. Later, by the
Archaic and
Classical periods, the term "Achaeans" referred to inhabitants of the much smaller region of
Achaea.
Herodotus identified the
Achaeans of the northern
Peloponnese as descendants of the earlier, Homeric Achaeans. According to
Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, the term "Achaean" was originally given to those Greeks inhabiting the
Argolis and
Laconia. Pausanias and Herodotus both recount the legend that the Achaeans were forced from their homelands by the
Dorians, during the legendary
Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese. They then moved into the region later called Achaea. A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans relative to the Homeric Achaeans and is still hotly debated. Former emphasis on presumed race, such as John A. Scott's article about the blond locks of the Achaeans as compared to the dark locks of "Mediterranean"
Poseidon, on the basis of hints in Homer, has been rejected by some. The contrasting belief that "Achaeans", as understood through Homer, is "a name without a country", an
ethnos created in the
Epic tradition, has modern supporters among those who conclude that "Achaeans" were redefined in the 5th century BC, as contemporary speakers of
Aeolic Greek.
Karl Beloch suggested there was no Dorian invasion, but rather that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans.
Eduard Meyer, disagreeing with Beloch, instead put forth the suggestion that the real-life Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks. His conclusion is based on his research on the similarity between the languages of the Achaeans and pre-historic Arcadians. William Prentice disagreed with both, noting archeological evidence suggests the Achaeans instead migrated from "southern
Asia Minor to Greece, probably settling first in lower
Thessaly" probably prior to 2000 BC. ==Hittite documents==